A 72-year-old Scottish woman touring in the Carpathian Mountains of Romania on Monday suffered non-life-threatening injuries to her arm while attempting to get a closeup photo of a brown bear.
Moira Gallacher was traveling with her friend Charmian Widdowson when they spotted two brown bears alongside the road. They stopped, and the bears approached the vehicle.
“We were in the car and we were going to take a picture,” Gallacher told Observator News via the Scottish Daily Express. “And the bear came up to the window.”
The bear raised up on its hind legs, leaned into the car and bit down on Gallacher’s arm through the window she had opened to get the photo; Widdowson immediately stepped on the gas and fled the scene, making way to a nearby hospital, according to the Daily Mail.
Scottish tourist mauled by bear through car window in Romania. https://t.co/M0AI6538VQ pic.twitter.com/nL9SFzgGkS
— STV News (@STVNews) April 23, 2024
Gallacher told the Scottish Daily Express that the Marks and Spencer jacket she was wearing probably saved her life.
“The mummy bear was hungry, and thought my friend was going to be lunch,” Widdowson told the Scottish Daily Express. “She was wearing a thick Marks and Spencer jacket and the poor bear got more jacket than arm.”
Gallacher, who lost her phone in the encounter, told STV news, “I’m a very lucky woman.”
The extent of her injuries was not reported, only that her arm is “sore.” She was expected to be discharged from the hospital on Wednesday.
More from the Scottish Daily Express:
Romania is home to Europe’s largest population of European brown bears. They are the largest terrestrial carnivores in Central Europe, reaching towering sizes of just over 7ft (2.2m) and weighing up to 350kg.
They are incredibly fast and can run at speeds of 30mph as well as being excellent climbers. Romania is home to an estimated 8,000 brown bears which is Europe’s largest population in the wild. Most reside in the Carpathian Mountains and over the past seven years, 14 people have been killed and more than 150 attacked by the animals.
